A brief history of zombie gaming

On June 12, the multi-platform zombie hunter game Lollipop Chainsaw was released. Gamers can take the controls of cheerleader-come-slayer Juliet Starling, as she fills the halls of San Romero High with the blood of her undead classmates. Tales of zombie apocalypses are nothing new to the gaming world, and the following is a collection of the bigger-named games that have hit the game consoles over the past three decades.

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Alone in the Dark (series)

First Released: 1992

Platforms: PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox360

Games: Alone in the Dark (1992), Alone in the Dark 2 (1993), Alone in the Dark 3 (1994), Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001) and Alone in the Dark (2008)

Protagonist: Edward Carnby

Gameplay: Touted as the first 3D survival horror game, Alone the Dark allowed players to take up the caseload of paranormal investigator Carnby. In the first three tales, he would investigate the disappearances of missing people, often uncovering undead lairs in the process. The series would also inspire two feature films, the first starring Christian Slater and Tara Reid.

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Zombies Ate My Neighbours

Released: 1993

Platforms: Super NES, Sega Genesis

Protagonist(s): Zeke and Julie

Gameplay: Just like the title, players have to go from level-to-level in order to save their neighbors from being served on the cul-de-sac buffet line. The video game is a cult classic, though it was released to a initially tepid audience.

Gameplay: One of the first 3D, first-person shooting games, Doom allowed gamers to travel through corridors of a space station on the Martian moon Phobos. Though most of the enemies were demons from Hell, other undead villains appeared during gameplay. It was eventually made into a film starring Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock.

Gameplay: A light gun cabinet game found in any arcade during the mid to late '90s, The House of Dead followed Thomas Rogan and G as they investigate Dr. Roy Curien's mansion. As the game progresses, players save civilians and fight undead hordes before finally meeting The Magician, a creature that turns on its master, Dr. Curien.

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Half-Life (series)

First released: 1998

Games: Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004)

Platforms: PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, Song (PS2 and PS3)

Protagonist: Gordon Freeman

Gameplay: The video game that made physicists seem a little bit cooler, Half-Life is set in the 21st century at the Black Mesa Research Facility. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist that survives an inter-dimensional rift that brings with it monstrous beasties from a planet called Xen. He has to survive a mass slaughter and then travel to the alien world to shut down the portal.

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Resident Evil (series)

First released: 1996

Games: 23 games released from (1996-2013), five major motion pictures and a sundry of novels, publications and merchandise.

Gameplay: Varying from game-to-game, the traditional third-person, 3D shooter follows the exploits of a special response unit in the fictional town of Raccoon City's police force. Special Tactics And Rescue Service, or STARS, are called in to investigate a series of strange events. Eventually the story leads to the heroes discovering a mutagenic biological agent called T-virus.

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Infected

Released: 2005

Platforms: PSP

Protagonist: A NYC police officer

Gameplay: It is three weeks before Christmas and a viral outbreak in New York City adds even more calamity to the holiday-shopping season. Your job as the police officer: clear areas, save civilians and kill zombies.

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Dead Rising (series)

First released: 2006

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3

Protagonist(s): Frank West and Chuck Greene

Gameplay: In the first story, photojournalist Frank West is trapped in a shopping mall situated in a fictitious Colorado burg called Willamette. While fighting off zombies, psychopaths and rescuing survivors, gamers uncover the causes of the zombie scourge. In Dead Rising 2, players take up the mantle of former motorcross champion Chuck Greene, now an athlete in the controversial reality sports show Terror is Reality. When the show's supply of zombies is released, survivors have to make it to safety.

Gameplay: The first-person cooperative shooter game follows a group of four survivors as they wade through the hordes infected with Green Flu. Gamers have to get their quartet from safe point to safe point before become one with the blight.

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Dead Space

Released: 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Protagonist: Isaac Clarke

Gameplay: Zombies in space. Players guide Isaac Clarke, named after sci-fi writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, through a inter-stellar hack and slash against Necromorphs â€“ corpses revived by an alien virus.

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Plants vs. Zombies

Released: 2009

Platforms: Cell phones, PC, PS3 and Xbox360

Protagonist: Homeowner

Gameplay: An arcade game that followed the same path as Angry Birds to popularity, Plants vs Zombies has homeowners plant vegetables to stay off zombies eating their brains. It's cartoony, low on gore, making it a game enjoyed by all groups.

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Dead Nation

Released: 2010

Platform: PS3

Protagonist(s): Jack McReady and Scarlett Blake

Gameplay: A shoot-em up game available for download in the PlayStation Store, Dead Nation allows players to take the role of Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake as they rid the streets of zombie clowns, putrefying police officers and decaying city workers. Players cam keep tabs on what country had purified their streets the best on a scoreboard.

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Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Released: 2010

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360

Protagonist: John Marston

Gameplay: Your wife and son have been infected by an unknown virus and your goal, in the Wild West, is to find a cure. It was the fifth downloadable expansion pack to Rockstar Games' popular open-world action game.

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Dead Island

Released: 2011

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and PS3

Protagonist(s): Sam B., Xian Mei, Logan and Purna

Gameplay: Much like Left 4 Dead, Dead Island follows four characters as they battle for survival on a fictional island located off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops: Zombies

Released: 2011

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and PS3

Protagonist(s): Variable

Gameplay: Zombies was a cooperative add-on to Call of Duty: Black Ops that was originally introduced in the World at War cache. Players are taken through various maps with different themes, including one that allows gamers to take the role of JFK, RFK, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro at the Pentagon.

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Lollipop Chainsaw

Released: 2012

Platforms: Xbox 360 and PS3

Protagonist: Juliet Starling

Gameplay: A hack-and-slash game rife with more t and a than a Victoria's Secret fashion show, Lollipop Chainsaw takes gamers along for a zombie-carving good time. Juliet Starling, a cheerleader and former pupil at San Romero High, must battle zombies in order to get goth-inspired antagonist Swan.

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The Last of Us

Expected release: early 2013

Platform: PS3

Protagonists: Joel and Ellie

Gameplay: First teased at the Spike Video Game Awards in November, 2011, The Last of Us features two characters trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Joel and Ellie scavenge the city, fighting off Mad Max-inspired gangs and a strange zombie-like humanoid.